Tornado sirens may give way to new warning technology

Apr. 19, 2013

A 2011 photo of a tornado siren located at Edison School in Appleton. / Post-Crescent Media photo by Sharon Cekada

More

ADVERTISEMENT

MADISON — On April 10, 2011, tornadoes ripped across central and northeast Wisconsin, tearing roofs off houses, toppling trees and snapping power lines.

In many places, the high winds were greeted by silence, as some Cold War-era warning sirens failed because of lost power and other issues — just when they were needed the most.

Today, people have a new way to find out about dangerous storms. And it doesn’t depend on the reliability of outdoor sirens. The latest in cellphone technology alerts people to take immediate shelter if they’re in the path of a potentially dangerous storm.

“Wow!” said Matthew Marmor, Calumet County’s director of emergency management, reacting to the new technology. “Wherever you are, once your phone is capable of that technology, you have that notice.”

But they acknowledge that new technology could someday silence the wails that accompany Wisconsin’s worst summer storms.

“The new technology works well ... to me I tend to see a drift that way, to the newer technologies and away from the sirens just because of the cost and expense,” Marmor said.

The latest technology

Cellphone alerts, which were rolled out nationally last year, are called “wireless emergency alerts.”

“They are up and running,” in Wisconsin, said Tod Pritchard, a spokesman for Wisconsin Emergency Management. “It’s a great tool.”

Pritchard said a cellphone is like a mini-radio that gets signals from surrounding cellphone towers. When, for example, a tornado warning is issued for Wood County, every cellphone tower there would transmit a warning to phones that are in range.

“So if you happen to be in Wood County, even if you happen to live in Milwaukee or La Crosse, it doesn’t really matter,” Pritchard said. “If you’re in Wood County, in Wisconsin Rapids or wherever, it’s going to go off, letting you know there is an alert.”

A phone that receives a warning message will sound an alert.

(Page 2 of 3)

“It’s not just a standard ring or the ring tone you’ve selected. It has a different sound to it,” Pritchard said.

Along with the tone, phones will display a short text message.

“A tornado warning for Wood County, (might say) ‘Take shelter immediately,’” he said. “It’s more of a red flag. It gives you that immediate warning.”

The storm alerts don’t work on older cellphones, and people should contact wireless providers to determine if their phones work with the new system. Pritchard said there is no fee to participate.

The system broadcasts three types of warnings: Alerts for life-threatening storms, including tornadoes; presidential alerts; and Amber Alerts for missing children.

The presidential alert system, which the White House could use in a national emergency like a terrorism incident, has been tested, but never used.

Are sirens still needed?

Outdoor warning sirens were installed during the Cold War to warn residents of an attack that never came. Over the years, communities used them to warn residents of impending storms.

Sirens remain common in most Wisconsin communities.

Rusty Kapela, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan, said the issue of warning sirens is “always a political hot potato.”

“At the Weather Service we don’t activate the sirens, we don’t control the sirens, we don’t dictate policy to cities and villages,” he said. “But I am aware that some cities and counties have a lot of sirens and others don’t. That’s just a fact.”

Emergency management directors say the sirens have value despite their limitations — such as not being designed to be heard indoors. In addition, the sirens can fail.

During the April 2011 storms, which brought tornadoes and dangerous winds to a wide swath of Wisconsin, at least 12 sirens failed, according to a Gannett Wisconsin Media check.

In Brown County, four sirens failed during the storm, but Paul Gazdik, the county’s emergency management director, said all of his county’s sirens are working today.

(Page 3 of 3)

“We have a county electrician that’s always checking on them to make sure they’re operational,” he said.

Gazdik said his county’s 54 sirens are activated via radio from the county’s 911 dispatch center and most have battery backups. .

In Marinette County, sirens are tested weekly, said Eric Burmeister, the county’s emergency management director. On Aug. 19, 2011, a tornado struck Wausaukee in his county, killing one person.

Burmeister said he received reports from residents a siren failed to sound, but he was unable to confirm the failure.

The expense factor

For local communities, part of the decision of whether to operate a siren comes down to cost.

“I think (sirens have) their place but sometimes folks think that’s the only way you can get notified, and obviously there’s many different ways to find out what’s going on,” Pritchard said. “That’s just one tool in the toolbox to use. They are helpful but they are not the be-all, end-all.”

In Brown County, Gazdik said, the county budgets $10,000 annually to maintain its sirens.

In Calumet County, according to Marmor, no communities have installed new sirens recently. He said new sirens carry a price tag from $20,000 to $120,000, depending on the system.

Three communities — Sherwood, Chilton and Brothertown — have authorized siren repairs in recent years.

“It’s a couple thousand dollars here, a couple thousand dollars there, plus getting a person out to fix it,” Marmor said. “It’s like getting a leak, perhaps in your gas tank. While it’s not all that much, it’s one more issue.”

In the village of Coleman, Marinette County officials decided recently to fix a siren that had been out of service for 25 years.

Dennis Gross, Coleman’s public works supervisor, said the project will cost about $2,000.

“It got old and broke,” he said. “Now we decided we should do something.”

Meanwhile, in the Lincoln County community of Tomahawk, city leaders haven’t bothered to operate the sirens in more than a decade because of the cost.

“They were very expensive to repair and when the sirens went off, not all of the city could hear them, only the central part of the city,” said Amanda Bartz, the city’s clerk/treasurer. “Every once in a while we get somebody requesting them and the council looks at it and it’s just not cost-effective.”

Bartz said residents don’t need a siren to know a storm is coming.

“With the new technology (the warning message) is out there anyways. It’s on the radio.”